After days of relentless high winds from the south, we finally took the plunge and headed out from Fig Foz to motor-sail to Lisbon, into strong southerly winds of course but not as strong as they have been. Whilst holed up in the marina over the last few days we've recorded wind speeds in excess of 45 knots ... heaven knows what it would have been like out at sea.
And now we're in Cascais and typically the wind has completely died and is forecast to stay like this for several days! It does feel as though this trip has been an uphill struggle to date so things can (hopefully) only get better.
We were in Cascais two years ago and it's a lovely place. It sits at the entrance of the Tagus, about 20 mins by train from Lisbon and is very popular with people from around the world and has a great feel to it. We wandered through the old town last night soaking up the atmosphere. Whilst waiting for the wind to return we'll certainly visit Lisbon and it will also give Paul's neck a chance to recover - he tweaked it removing the rope from around the propeller when we left La Coruna and has been suffering from headaches on and off ever since. As I say, things can only get better, including Paul's neck!
Sadly Paul's Mum is in hospital and the prognosis isn't good. We need to continue to the Canaries but will probably head for Lanzarote, leave Tumi in the marina there and head back to the UK to say goodbye and support his Dad. It's a shame we won't be able to explore the Canaries as had been the plan - maybe another time.